One approach to removing an undesired source of tissue growth involves the application of sufficient thermal energy to the target growth to remove the tissue by ablation. Various types of growths that can be removed through thermal ablation include tumors, warts, etc. In the ablation technique, the tissue is eliminated by necrosis, and allowed to slough away. Compared with surgical removal of tissue, ablation therapy may have reduced morbidity, lower cost, and may spare surrounding tissue. Ablation has been used to remove a variety of tumor types such as in liver, lung, breast, pancreas, bile duct, bone, and kidney.
Existing ablation techniques include the use of RF energy. RF ablation techniques, however, suffer from the disadvantage that special precautions are needed to use an RF generator in conjunction with a magnetic resonance imager because of the risk from the displacement force of the magnet. Cryo-ablation has also been used to ablate tissue but is susceptible to a high rate of reoccurrence. Techniques have also been described for ablating tissue with the heat generated from a chemical reaction. Existing thermochemical ablation techniques, however, can suffer from the complications associated with handling of multiple potentially hazardous chemicals in liquid or gaseous form and the removal of the reaction by-products from the treatment site without contamination of the target tissue from the reactants or their by-products.
Thus, there exists a need for simple and low-cost techniques to conduct controlled ablation of tissue under a variety of circumstances.